Art and Soulie Spot 5

stories from the creative path

Introducing…ta daaa….Val Andrews…

Val Andrews is a visual artist who writes about the creative process.

Orchid woman in green
Val Andrews © original art

Here is her story –

“For me, the art-making experience started in childhood, and soon became a great escape from the stress in my troubled family.

I would hide in my bedroom and draw convoluted patterns as a way of focusing on something other than what was happening in my home.

Over the years the patterns became

more and more elaborate and colourful. They took on a life of their own; independent of the stress that had given birth to them.

At 15 years of age, I was out in the world alone and struggling to make ends meet while putting myself through school and university. I didn’t return to art-making until the age of 35, by which time I was more financially secure and desperate to return to my creativity. But I didn’t know where to start.

I only knew there was a yearning for something that was not being met in any other aspect of my life.

Then, as the saying goes ‘when the student is ready the teacher appears…’ I met Sally Swain, Creativity Coach. I did some of her art and writing workshops and eventually enrolled in some 1-on-1 creativity coaching sessions with her.

At first it felt weird for me to step through the portal of creative self-expression, but I persevered with the process, and Sally persevered with me. Eventually, I started to realise I hadn’t stepped into a weird space, rather, I had returned to a familiar space. More accurately, I had returned to myself.

Some 15 years later, I have developed my art practice and exhibited my artwork across Australia and England. A passionate advocate of the value of creative self-expression, I have published two books on the topic and I’m currently writing a third.

{link to Amazon Author Page}

My creative practice is evolving all the time. It never stands still. I genuinely feel no attachment to anything I create because I believe it only represents an aspect of who I was in the moment I created it. Every moment offers new possibilities to explore new things and express them in a variety of ways, and all choices are valid.”

Val talks more about the creative process on her website and shares links to images of her artwork. Please feel free to check out her website and subscribe to her blog to receive fortnightly posts about the creative process. Here: http://valandrews9.com